Right-to-Buy sales soar by 31% on last year as tenants snap up 3,000 homes

Up: Right-to-Buy was launched by Margaret Thatcher to encourage council tenants to buy their homes

The number of homes sold through the Government’s Right-to-Buy scheme is up more than a third compared with last year.

Figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government show 2,845 houses were bought through the scheme between April and June this year.

That is 31 per cent more than the 2,171 bought in the same quarter last year.

London was the most popular area, accounting for a third of Right-to-Buy purchases. Nationally, councils made a total of £210.8million from the sales in the past year, with an average £74,000 paid for a property.

It is an increase of more than 60 per cent from the amount raised through sales in the same period last year.

Right-to-Buy was launched by Margaret Thatcher in 1980 to encourage council tenants to buy their homes. Around two million properties were sold in the following three decades.

In 2012, the scheme was ‘reinvigorated’ to offer discounts of up to £75,000 on properties to encourage tenants to buy.

The discount was increased in March 2013 to £77,000 and to £102,700 for London borough tenants.
‘Council house building starts are now at a 23-year high,’ says Brandon Lewis, housing and planning minister.